deejammin'

And just like that Hawthorn have won one of their past 6 games. Pretenders. Were Essendon good or were Hawthorn just that bad? I know my answer.

Yep, I hadn’t realised both games were basically at the same time. Dumb stuff from the AFL, put the VFL game a couple of hours after the AFL game and not only can fans watch both but subs and emergency players could play! Argh! The AFL make the easy so hard sometimes. Is there some super important event at Casey at 4 that stops them from playing then?!

Agree 100%. But should the Saints lose you can guarantee it will get trotted out by the media.

Well, stats wise actually they’re both pretty poor on marking. I think that’s your perception but the stats don’t actually bear that out. Here’s the facts: TMac averages: 3.8 Marks 1.7 inside 50 .8 contested .7 marks on a lead .2 intercept Weid: 3.2 Marks 1.6 inside 50 1.4 contested .2 Marks on a lead 0 intercept As you can see Tom takes a fraction more marks, which are mainly on a lead or behind the ball, he is below average on contested marks. Sam takes less marks on a lead and hasn’t played backline to take intercept marks but is average for contested marks and well ahead of Tom on that stat. Overall I don’t think it’s marking that is separating them, I’m sure the FD would like both players to mark the ball more and drag their stats to average or above average for marking but atm Weideman is the only one with an average marking stat (contested). The difference is pressure.

Impossible to tell from that game. North were as bad as it gets. Freo actually turned the ball over a lot in positions where North should’ve scored but North were just so bad it’s impossible to tell. Freo are on track to play finals. We’ll see whether they’re top four material in the next month when they play GC, Pies, Us and Brisbane. All I got out of this game was that I hope North play that badly against us in round 10. The percentage would be great!

That’s a super strong side. That forward line is too good for VFL, particularly if Bedford floats through there. Still no Woewodin though, was his head knock still causing concussion issues? It looked nasty at the time. I don’t recall hearing him listed in our injury report? EDIT: My mistake Woewodin is listed as one week for concussion on the injury list. Hope he’s recovering well.

I think stats wise the key point of difference between Tom and Sam is their defensive effort. Tom averages 1 tackle (below average), .8 inside 50 tackles (average) and 11.2 Pressure acts (above average). Sam 1.2 tackles (below average), .4 inside 50 tackles (below average), 5.4 pressure acts (below average). Tom is not setting the world on fire defensively, but Sam is barely registering any pressure at all. It’s visible in how he plays sadly, once he misses the mark or lead he’s out of the play. Both of them need to do work on their intensity and pressure around the ball and I’d suggest this will be Sam’s main area to concentrate on back in the VFL. Hopefully Sam can lift as he’s actually a very good tackler, but at the moment Tom is doing more of the defensive bullocking work and that’s why he’s back in.

I think we’d be encouraging Majak to stay on. He’s been in great form at VFL level and good back-up ruckman don’t grow on trees, it’s the one weakness on our list, ideally we’d have two back up pure ruckman, right now we have Majak and Weideman who’s clearly more of a forward. Hibbo and Melk might retire, some fringe players might seek more opportunities. I hope we can keep Brayshaw and Jacko, they’re super important.

Port, Freo, Tigers, Swans, GWS, Essendon, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide. I suck at tipping though, tend to let MFC’s best interests and my hatred of teams guide me, not wise.

I personally am loving the commentary this week, it’s just enough to annoy the boys into flogging the Saints. Our forward line pressure was down against Hawthorn mainly due to the absence of ANB and Kozzie. ANB is averaging 5.2 tackles and 23.8 pressure acts (Elite) a game in 2022, the highest on our list, Kozzie Pickett 3.2 tackles 20.7 pressure acts (also elite) a game. Bedford and Melksham had a combined 6 tackles and 32 pressure acts that’s not bad but it’s -2.4 and -13.6 on what we get usually. For us it’s huge drop in pressure up front, which allowed Hawthorn to more easily transition the ball. And that’s just two players! Jackson is also more mobile and commits more pressure acts than both Weideman and TMac (Jackson is good for tackles, elite for inside 50 tackles and above average for pressure acts, Tom Mac is closer but both he and Weid are down against Jackson). Front half pressure is a huge part of our game and it was down against the Hawks, and we still won, and were never behind in the second half and always had at least a two goal buffer, that’s an easy kill. As many have noted it appears we win the game and then shelve the attacking stuff in the last quarter, our last quarter scores are down on last year yet we have never been behind in a last quarter this year, that’s a significant stat. If the opposition never have you in fear of losing, preserving players, playing defensively and shutting the game down is fine, it doesn’t mean we can’t annihilate a team but coming off a shorter pre-season, missing key personnel and knowing every week teams are trying to get us, we’re not wasting energy on a percentage we won’t need if we keep winning. Also I really love the “Melbourne hasn’t beaten anyone” commentary, we’re the REIGNING PREMIERS! We’ve beaten almost everyone! In fact we currently have the unique stat of having beaten every team in the AFL the last time we played them, except Collingwood. It’s a long way off but should we keep this streak going to after QB we will be the only team in the modern AFL era to have a winning record against every team in the league!!! I hope the media and their desperate, disrespectful narrative attempts to make Melbourne seem vulnerable filter back to the club and spur them on to smash the saints, that’s all it’s good for. Regardless of what happens this weekend the worst we will be heading into round 11 is 9-1, every other team in the league would envy that, that’s the stat that matters. It sets us up to get ready for the real stuff in September, the rest is noise, long may it continue!

Agree to disagree I guess. I see them finishing 10-12 this year and staying outside the 8 next year. What do you reckon?

I’m not so convinced, sure the Hawks appear better than last year (although they won most of their last 5 games with Clarko) but in terms of long term success Mitchell is still relying heavily on an older core of players that are on the way down, the following are carrying them atm and will not be part of their next flag imo: McEvoy(32), Breust (32), Gunston (30), Shiel (32), T Mitchell (29), J O’Meara (28), Impey (28), Wingard (28), Frost (27). These players (with the exception of an injured McEvoy) are all playing close to the Hawks best players to carry the Hawks back to competitive footy. They are not the Hawks future, to the extent Mitchell tried to trade a few of them last trade period and I predict their form will slump this year or injuries will get them, hurtling the Hawks back down for more pain, with less quality draft picks due to the improved performance from this older brigade. It might be wishful thinking but I think Mitchell and the Hawks are in for more pain, the great pretenders!

Love the rebrand! Jumpers nice, not my favourite but good, prefer the short sleeves.

Sure, I guess I don’t see the current top 8 as my end of season top 8. I think the Dogs, Tigers, Giants and even the Power will push to get back in. Pies and Carlton are vulnerable to missing. St Kilda and Geelong will have down periods where they drop away from top 4. Geelong in particular look vulnerable to quick teams, they play GWS, Saints, WB, Port and Adelaide in the next five. We’ll learn a lot about them after that month, despite only 1 opponent in the top 8. I suspect they lose 3, possibly 4, though maybe it’s wishful thinking. I haven’t seen enough Freo to know, but it’s worth remembering they were 6th at this time last year, only to drop 5 spots by years end. Brisbane and Sydney are the real deal, home final will be huge. We need to lock away top 2. I’m hoping we make it to 10-0 with a huge percentage before a very nasty run of games. You may be right, but we’ll see. I see a very close year ahead.

Yep, wins will be like gold this year, the reality is with the exceptions of WC and North every other team is capable on their day. Dogs, GWS, Port, Pies, Hawks, GC, even Essendon, on their day they will win games. We’ve banked 7, keep going and lock away finals ASAP. Then sit back and watch all the other teams tear each other apart. Freo, St Kilda, Carlton are all capable of good footy, but they are also young and will have lapses this year, all teams will, the further in front we get on the ladder the more chance we have to rest players, up training loads for finals and weather covid storms like this week. The AFL media love the week to week stories but the truth is, we are probably 3 wins from locking away finals, 5-6 from locking away top 4 and 8 away from locking away top 2. We’re in the box seat and just need to keep winning.

Undefeated! Nice! Need some mids back for Casey. Hopefully Taj is better, two of Dunstan, Melksham, Bedford, Sparrow and Jordan to join Casey next week health allowing.

Great work from AMW to Baker, nice pass to Chandler, goal. Huge quarter from Chandler!

That was a HUGE push in the back from Baker there. Unpaid, mark to Chandler, hawks dissent, 50, goal. Brilliant!!!

Great mark Tommo!

Super pressure from White. Good goal!

I agree. But he has been the chief opponent for Max during his career, Nic Nat is 3x all Australian, I had forgotten the Eagles won their premiership without him, I thought he was a premiership player. Dean Cox is Max’s chief competition for greatest of the modern era, but I think Max has him covered, particularly if he keeps going and is AA captain again this year.

I’d argue if Jimmy had won a premiership he’d be in the discussion for greatest with Max. Ask the players which they prefer, Brownlow or Premiership captain… Max is clearly the greatest ruckman of the modern AFL era, his competition is Dean Cox, Simon Madden and Nic Nat. The only one troubling him there is Cox imo. And he’ll go past him this year if we keep going. For those complaining about crowd numbers 40000 is not bad at all, pretty good actually, from where I was sitting the gaps were in the Hawthorn cheer squad. 4.35 is a terrible time slot! Finishes late enough to miss dinner and be going home in the dark, for someone who works nights I had to leave at 3 quarter time. But doesn’t gain any advantage by starting so late. 3-6 is a much better time slot.

Was Taj concussed in that clash? It looked a nasty knock and his face was already swollen coming off the ground. I hope he bounces back quickly and doesn’t lose any confidence as he was looking the goods before then.

Very happy with the win. The good: We are now two games + percentage inside the top three, this is really all that matters. Beat the Saints next week with Eagles and North to follow, we could have finals locked away and be as much as 4 games + percentage inside the top 4. We have still never been truly challenged, “scrape home” AFL.com? We were never behind in the last quarter, we were never one goal away from being behind, we were only 2 goals away with 1.30 left in the game, that’s not a scrape, Port vs St Kilda is a scrape. We had 6 of our starting 18 out and we still won, nuff said. Port went 0-5 when confronted with similar outs. The frustrating: I get it but I don’t like the rope-a-dope last quarters. It would’ve been far more fun if we simply kicked straight, (particularly Bailey and Jake), we need to ice games, not try to smash teams and leave ourselves vulnerable, but just kick a sealer. A single goal would’ve completely broken the Hawks, see Sydney last week. We let them keep hope, understandable but frustrating. Our forward line needs to get back to separating and leading, the number of times Brown, Gawn, McDonald and Weideman all jumped into each other, or at least two did was very frustrating. Stop bombing to packs, lead! Ultimately, a wins a win and the Hawks are pretenders. Mark my words, they will fail this year and then get worse next year, Mitchell, O’Meara, Wingard, Gunston, Shiel and Breust are still their best, they’re all on the way out. Enjoy the pain Hawks, there’s plenty to come! 😈😈😈

Yeah, but they only played three quarters against Sydney 😈😈😈